Monday, July 30, 2012

To Sunapee with The Barters

So I think we'll make the Barter get together at least an annual thing (if not more frequently.)  My very good friend, Nikki lives in New York with her husband and her two boys.  We met up with them twice last year; once in MA and once in PA.  This year, we got a deal on Living Social for two for one hotel night stays at a hotel in Sunapee so they came to us again and we went up to my family's cottage for the weekend.

The weekend started early with the Barters arriving in Peabody on Thursday afternoon.  We had takeout and the boys had fun getting to know each other again.  Friday we went to Lynch Park in Beverly for some play time at the beach.  (I am quite familiar with Lynch as it is one of my favorite places to shoot engagement and family sessions).  We had fun with the low tide looking for crabs, hermit crabs, snails, and other fun and unusual creatures.  Eliot, of course, brought a full bag of trucks and such with him to set up his construction site.


Friday afternoon we left for Sunapee.  We went straight to our cottage and the boys went in the water.  I made the mistake of showing Alex (Nikki and Dave's oldest son) a crayfish and then he refused to go in the water so we had to use a baby pool as a flotation device for him so his feet were safe from the water.  Eliot had a blast pushing and pulling him around.



After that, we got some pizza and went back to the hotel to check in.  They were suites and they were quite roomy and nice.  We ended up being right across the hall from each other which was nice.  At night, we put our boys to bed and Nikki and Dave snuck over with their monitor and we drank wine (and Ted got his favorite NY/PA beer), chatted and played some board games.

Saturday morning was awesome.   Nikki and I went for a couples massage that was to die for.  It was quite an awesome massage.  I felt so relaxed afterwards.  Then her and I went down to the hot tub for about a 15 minute dip in the hot water. Again, it was so relaxing.  That was cut short when Ted and Eliot tracked me down after Eliot had a run in with a door and skinned off the top of his toe pretty badly and all he wanted was his Mama.

The rest of the day was kind of dreary.  It rained quite a bit and there wasn't much to do.  We were stuck inside and the boys were kind of chomping at the bit to do something.  Alex's favorite line of the trip was "it's BOR-ing!"



Saturday night was a ton of fun.  After we put the kids to bed, we broke out the wine and board games again and I haven't let go like that in quite a while.  It felt good just to laugh and be silly.  Poor Nikki, though, drank more than her fair share and felt it the next day.  Ted took some videos and now has blackmail over us both.

Sunday was another dreary day.   Nikki and I and then Ted, Eliot and I went canoeing. Then Eliot had a little time to fish before all the festivities were over for the weekend.   He became impatient with the fishing pole and grabbed the net instead.  Meanwhile, Ted actually did catch a fish and Eliot was thrilled. 

The Barters left for home right after lunch and we followed soon after.  We were all exhausted from a late night the night before and the gloomy weather wasn't helping anything.



It was a great weekend and I always have so much fun with Nikki.  We chat all year round on the computer, but it's so nice to actually be able to get together and chat in person.  I can't wait til our next get together!

Busy Bags

A while ago (maybe late Winter, early Spring), I signed up to be part of a busy bag swap.  A busy bag is a zip lock bag with an educationally geared craft or activity in it.  We had 18 moms as part of our swap.  The box sat downstairs for quite some time.  The last time we were going to open the box, Eliot ran towards it, hit his head on the bricks and we ended up at a Dr.'s apt.  Last week, we finally opened the box and played with most of the busy bags.  Eliot had a blast! I couldn't believe it actually because aside from my truck-themed Popsicle stick puzzles, there wasn't another single truck activity in the lot!  It kept us busy for almost a whole entire morning.

Sorting pop-poms and paper clips with tongs:





 Pipe cleaners and beads:



 Magnetic Fishing:



Friday, July 20, 2012

The Annual Cape Cod Post

We got back from the Cape earlier this week and life's been hectic since.  I actually left the Cape for a day to shoot a wedding and went back afterwards for one last day of sunshine.  I have the most color that I can remember having in my adult life.  I'm scared for it to leave me so I am going to attempt to get outside more in the coming weeks!

Back to the Cape festivities.  There was sand...


^ Teaching Lilla how to use my camera.^  She took her very first two shots on a $2500 camera.  The first one was in focus.  The second was not.  Here was her first:

Lilla got bit by a crab her first day in the water and didn't love the idea of going back in so we tried to find some fun things to do outside of the water... including this 29 year old pulling out some 20 year old gymnastics moves... ouch!

There was some surf...

  

Some searching for treasure:

  
^Ted bought our family a metal detector for our trip to see what kinds of goodies we could find.^  Eliot was super thrilled with his two bottle caps and one nickel.  

Some Relaxin'

  

Some group activities:



 



 ... AND S'MORE NIGHT:



We had a nice time.  The kids, more than ever, enjoyed themselves.  They are getting older now and play well together (for the most part).   Thank you, Gramma & Grampa for another wonderful year at the Cape!

Monday, July 9, 2012

Lilla's 4th Of July Party & A Trip to The Aquarium

My 4 year old niece has been talking about her 4th of July part for months now.  I think it was around Christmastime when I first heard mention of this party.  We got the evite about a month ago and finally got to attend the infamous 4th of July party last week.  There were lots of people there... and tents.. and games for kids, activities, conversation, face painting, food, and HOT weather! 

It was very well planned!  I had to believe that Lilla had SOME help :)  Eliot had a blast playing with his cousins, distant cousins, and new friends. 

It was too hot to have my camera out for long, but I did snap a few photos!








Two days later, I had planned a game night for my (first of many) 29th birthday celebration. Nana came down and stayed a couple of nights and we decided to spend that Saturday at the aquarium.  Eliot had been asking last month to go, so even though it was a hot Saturday, we decided to go ahead and try to brave the New England Aquarium.  It was every bit as crowded as I imagined it would be and I will never again go to the aquarium on a Saturday. Ever. (I think I've said that before, but this time I really.mean.it.).